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Alex Wrekk is in town from Portland, OR! Like Ms. Adderley, Alex Wrekk trekked across a handful of states to table at our fledging wee fest– why don’t you come down and get some zines from her distro, Portland Button Works, and check our her long-running zine– Brainscan.

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF!

Portland Button Works will bring our whole zine distro including my personal zine, Brainscan. We will also have our whole catalog of zine themed buttons. I’ve been creating Brainscan since 1997 and it is a zine that has grown as changed over the years some topics have included: travel, stories, reproductive health, love, recovery from emotional abuse, and more wrapped in stark black and white photocopier art layout.

What do you say when someone asks you, “What are zines?”

Sounds like magazine, without the “maga”. They are like small self published magazine where people get to tell their own story or include their own art. Zines are physical things (e-zines are not zines!) but there is also a large network of communities that celebrate and participate in the culture of zines.

Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

Of course, but I’m not telling you!

What’s the most challenging thing about zine making?

Finding the time to make them these days.

How long have you been writing zines, and how did you get started?What do you enjoy most about making zines?

I started my first zine in 1994, but didn’t put it out until 1995. I keep reading them and one day it hit me “I can make these too!”

Roughly how many zines do you archive in your personal collection?

Thousands and thousands over the years. I’ve been passing them on lately, though.

So much of the written word we now experience via digital media. Why are zines important?

Because zines can get to places that digital media can’t. There is something very special about the tangibility of zines and holding something in your hand that you know the creator of it touched it as well.

Right now, zinesters are motoring across the deserts of ‘MERICA, soon to arrive in Albuquerque for ABQZF (It’ll be a speedy journey, as nearly all of the Nation’s national parks are CLOSED, but all the better for US. Get here already)!

One such zinester is Sage Adderley, cruising in from Olympia, Washington. Sage is the proud owner of Sweet Candy Distro, one of the most orderly and and diverse distros in all the land. Sweet Candy works with writers from all over the US and around the globe. Topics featured in SCD include mental health, feminism, body image, gender, parenting, food, travel, art, survival, fiction stories, and so much more. Check it out! The amazing Sage also runs Sage’s Blog Tours-- an online service that secures “book tours” for authors via the pages of popular literary blog sites. WHAT?! Like we said, BRILLIANT.

If that weren’t enough, Sage, mother of three, also just added a book publishing arm to Sweet Candy. She just released Heavy Hangs the Head, by zinester Taryn Hipp (Lady Teeth), and is currently collaborating with zinester Jonas Cannon (Cheer the F Up) to publish his book, The Greatest Most Traveling Circus. In fact, they just launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the necessary funds to get the book to press. Click the photo below to screen their campaign video!

Photo by Courtney Dowdall

A zinester in her own right, Sage will be tabling her long-running zines, Marked for Life and the comp zine about loving your body, FAT-TASTIC. She’s also writing and editing her first novel. (Jeez! Did we mention she has THREE KIDS? How do you do it, Sage?!) You can take a look at Sage’s zines right here.But why not save you dollars and purchase zines from Sage in person, on Saturday at ABQZF?!

ABQ Zine Fest is this SATURDAY and SUNDAY. From now until the fest, we’ll be highlighting some of the zinesters exhibiting at The Tannex, The Tan, and Small Engine Gallery on Saturday, October 5th. NEXT: John and Jenn Myers

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF!

We plan to have three this year:

1. All the Growing Things (written and drawn by Jennifer Myers): a comic book about Maude, an old woman who finds her garden is under siege by strange monsters. To save it she ventures into a mysterious underworld full of bizarre creatures, cultists and cats.

2. The Vagus Street Rehabilitation Project (written by John Myers and drawn by Jennifer Myers: a comic book that combines a series of loosely connected ghost stories about the haunted Vagus Street Housing Project. (http://vagus.typodmary.com/2009/04/30/vrp1cover/)

3. The Era of Great Wonders (written by John Myers and drawn by Jennifer Myers: a comic book about the war between giant monsters told in the words of the people who lived through it. (http://greatwonders.typodmary.com/2013/07/03/splash-page/)

What do you say when someone asks you, “What are zines?”

Technically, self published magazines and books but I tend to think its more about a community of like minded individuals all working to support each other creatively.

Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

Nope.

What’s the most challenging thing about zine making?

Time. Making anything creative is hard work. Making something creative in your free time is exhausting.

How long have you been writing zines, and how did you get started?

I love making things. Taking an idea from concept to completion is one of the best feelings in the world.

What do you enjoy most about making zines?

That amazing rush of feeling vulnerability and accomplishment at the same time whenever I finish writing, laying out, xeroxing, folding, stapling and putting out a new issue. That and the connecting with others doing zines through mail and in person, too.

Roughly how many zines do you archive in your personal collection?

I just started picking up material at last year’s Zinefest, so only a dozen or so.

So much of the written word we now experience via digital media. Why are zines important?

Physical media is special in a lot ways, books, comics, magazines they all have a physicality that we can connect to and attach our memories to. More importantly, we can share them in a way can’t with digital media, it’s easy to pass a book or a magazine along in a way that is difficult with digital media.

Thanks, Jennifer & John

Check out their work at ABQZF this Saturday. On Sunday, John and Jennifer will teach their discussion/workshop: Creative Couples–How To Work With The One You Love.

ABQ Zine Fest is MERE DAYS AWAY! From now until the fest, we’ll be highlighting some of the zinesters exhibiting at The Tannex, The Tan, and Small Engine Gallery on Saturday, October 5th. NEXT: Pam Dailey

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF!

TheZINEsaurus is a personal zine. I share stories about my life and observations about the universe. It’s a sporadically produced zine; no regular schedule. I merge and express my love of words, writing, drawing, photography, story-telling, nature, science, animals, tape, glitter, glue, and paper. With synonyms. And sometimes antonyms. This is how I rejuvenate my soul. This year, I have three new full-size zines: Zine of the Apocalypse, Depression, and Road Trip. And I have three mini zines: Spring-Sprang-Sprung, Hygienic Ornamental Patterns, and Haiskoo. I’ll also have copies of my zines from the two previous years.

What do you say when someone asks you, “What are zines?”

Zine is like ‘magazine’. They are little self-published collections of stories, images, photos, whatever. Zines started in the 70′s and 80′s as FanZines, publicity for people’s favorite bands. Now, they’ve evolved into being anything we want them to be. If you can think of it, somebody is writing a zine about it, somewhere. There are fiction zines, poetry zines, per-zines (like mine) where people share their personal lives and commentaries, stuff like that.

What’s the most challenging thing about zine making?

I find it hard to capture my ideas as they are floating by. I have tons of ideas, and I don’t always remember to write them down! I consciously make time for zine’ing every week. It soothes my soul.

How long have you been writing zines, and how did you get started?

I’ve been producing what could be called zines since the fall of 2011, when I did my first zine as part of the first ABQ Zine Fest weekend challenge. My background is in art, and I’ve been combining my sketches, photos, and other images with my words and thoughts since art school in college in the early 90′s.

What do you enjoy most about making zines?

I love it when my vision of what I want to create comes out as good as the image in my head. And I love it when the words in the thesaurus I use teach me something more about life.

Roughly how many zines do you archive in your personal collection?

Ummm…. three. four. something like that.

Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

Yes.

No.

So much of the written word we now experience via digital media. Why are zines important?

It’s so important to have the physicality of the zine in your hands. And for us creators to actually create, put pen to paper, so to speak. The visceral act of art and writing changes when it’s solely digital.

ABQ Zine Fest is MERE DAYS AWAY! From now until the fest, we’ll be highlighting some of the zinesters exhibiting at The Tannex, The Tan, and Small Engine Gallery on Saturday, October 5th. NEXT: Anita Margarita

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF!

Naughty Bits are my collections of erotic tales. New this year will be Bits of Naughty, mini-zines of single stories created just for Dirty Zine Readings. There will be a few other treats by my alter-ego, Elisa McGovern.

She’s usually too shy to write under her own name, but she decided to be more confident in her writing this year.

What do you say when someone asks you, “What are zines?”

Self-published, DIY bits of heaven on paper. Thoughts and deeds and ideas transcribed for your entertainment and/or edification. Pick up one and find out. Then pick up another. And another. Don’t stop until you understand, and then pick up another because you do understand.

Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

Who don’t I have a zine crush on? Liza Bley’s Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf is amazing, sexy, sex-positive educational hotness, much like Liza herself. Major Rainy Sneer keeps me on the edge of my seat (because I like the pressure on my pubic bone) with her hot stories of blue collar sex. Billy da Bunny likes it freaky; that’s right up my alley. Pamela Dailey’s TheZINEsaurus is also a delightfully wordy-nerdy zine after my own heart. (I heard she’s getting a little dirty this year, too!) Lisa Barrow’s Oh Dear No blows me away, artistically and linguistically. That’s why I table with her. That and I really like her. I’m probably forgetting some zines, and I’m sure I’ll fall in love with others this year.

What’s the most challenging thing about zine making?

Some days it’s time; some days it’s erotic inspiration. I’m very particular about my stories. I have to “road test” them for quality and spank-ability. After that, it comes down to finding visuals. Searching craigslist casual encounters for my “Salute to the Magnificent Cock” issue was fun but time-consuming. Turning off Google safe search is also fun but quickly overloads my brain.

How long have you been writing zines, and how did you get started?

About 2 years. I was tricked into writing something for the first Zine Fest in 2011, and discovered I liked it. (Writing, not being tricked.)

What do you enjoy most about making zines?

Getting to express myself without the pressure to please anyone but myself. I love it when someone tells me my stories make them hot, but that’s just gravy. Delicious, delicious gravy.

Roughly how many zines do you archive in your personal collection?

I have probably like 45 zines of zines I have Um…without counting, probably 75 or so. I’m excited to increase that number through Zine Fest 2013.

So much of the written word we now experience via digital media. Why are zines important?

For me, I appreciate the tactile quality of paper in my hands. Even a borrowed zine is your possession for the time you’re holding it. On the practical side, it takes less electricity to read a zine than to read a blog.

WOW– it’s a GREAT WEEKEND to be a cyclist in Albuquerque! Here’s a round-up on what’s up. It’s the last Friday of the month and time for CRITICAL MASS RIDE. Meet at the duck pond at 6:30, and be ready to ride 7pm SHARP. All two-wheelers welcome! Get out there! Be safe and have FUN.The SEEK & ZINE scavenger hunt is on SATURDAY! WIN PRIZES! Have FUN! Ride your BIKE!! Make a mini zine in one hour with two/three of your friends! Raise a little coin for ABQ Zine Fest!

You’ll have three hours to gather clues from several locations and approximately one hour to make your mini zine! Include all the necessary categories to gain points! Use your bonus points! The highest score WINS! Teams will be given one official Zine & Seek zine with all the clues, zine elements, locations and bonus points. Meet back at The Tannex to have your points tallied. A winning team will be declared! Then, let the trading of the mini zines begin!

It’s $5 to participate, but you’re also kicking in to help ABQ Zine Fest keep the fest free for visitors. Click here to RSVP, connect with participants, and work on building your team! At the end of the finish line- Soo Bak Food Truck will have delicious Seoul food for purchase, so bring a little $$ for refreshments while we read your zines and reward the winners!!

Love Breaking Bad? Ride Walt’s route! Hone your urban cycling skills in Walt’s playground. Choose your own destiny as you carefully plan your route to include as few or as many stops as you like. No prior Breaking Bad knowledge required! The ride will end with a season finale viewing party at Cafe Adieux (420 Central)! Click here to RSVP!

Mother, teacher, writer, musician, artist and activist Jessica Mills is doing us all a favor– she’s helping to make the job of parent easier and more radical. In 2007, the former columnist for Razorcake penned the punk-parenting bible called, My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Guide to Parenting for the Rest of Us, to offer alternative strategy to parenting for those who want to be nurturing to their children without completely abandoning their own art. My Mother Wears Combat Boots joins Tomas Moniz’s Rad Dad, and Ariel Gore’s Hip Mama as guides to non-traditional, radical childrearing. Aside from raising a handful of daughters with her partner, Jessica helps run a distro– well, a different type of distro– she is a key volunteer for Erda Gardens, an all-local CSA located in the South Valley of Albuquerque.

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF!

This is the 3rd year I’ll be putting out a special ABQ zine fest issue of Yard Wide Yarns. And since I’m a haiku junky, I’ll have a Summer 2013 haiku zine. I handmade a bunch of spiral notebooks because I’m a scavenger reuser, so I’m bringing those too. I actually ripped off my daughters’ idea there except theirs have collage covers and mine are cut from food packaging.

How long have you been writing zines, and how did you get started?

I had been writing for others’ zines, but put out my first issue of Yard Wide Yarns in 1993. I was surrounded by punk rockers doing things themselves and wanted to be a participant instead of just a consumer. I was also motivated by feeling that my female voice had something to add to the male dominated scene. I stopped doing YWY in 1999 when I was pregnant with my first daughter and started writing a monthly column for Maximum Rock and Roll, “My Mother Wears Combat Boots,” until 2009. I picked up YWY again in 2011 for my first ABQ zine fest.

What do you say when someone asks you, “What are zines?”

Zines are independently produced publications. They can be whatever you want them to be and have more sass than regular “maga”zines.

Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

Yes, and it’s a bad couple of ‘em! No way.

What’s the most challenging thing about zine making?

Not being able to prioritize enough large chunks of uninterrupted time that putting together a zine requires.

What do you enjoy most about making zines?

That amazing rush of feeling vulnerability and accomplishment at the same time whenever I finish writing, laying out, xeroxing, folding, stapling and putting out a new issue. That and the connecting with others doing zines through mail and in person, too.

Roughly how many zines do you archive in your personal collection?

Oh geez. I probably qualify for hoarder status here. Thanks to moving from Florida to Seattle to Albuquerque though, I did unload a few boxes at the Civic Media Center Zine Library in Gainesville, FL and few scattered others. I think I’m ready to unload some more at the Albuquerque Zine Library (at the Tannex)!

So much of the written word we now experience via digital media. Why are zines important?

Zines are important like any other sliver of any other culture is important. They are media, art, literature, and passion. They’re unhackable, secure documents that you don’t need to be electronically connected to to enjoy.

ABQ Zine Fest is TWO WEEKS AWAY! From now until the fest, we’ll be highlighting some of the zinesters exhibiting at The Tannex, The Tan, and Small Engine Gallery on Saturday, October 5th. NEXT: Justin Guthrie

How long have you been writing zines, and how did you get started?

I’ve been doing zines for 2 years now and I started cause me and my friends all got super hyped on photography and decided to make zines together and hand them out to people. My first one was called Cuban Linx, a Raekwon The Chef rip off haha.

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF!

I’ll be tabling some zines I made and that I’ve had published. I made one zine about early 2000s skate fashion called “No Posers” that I’m really stoked on, other zines are more 35mm photography of sublime findings in the great state of New Mexico. I might throw in a doodle zine too.

What do you say when someone asks you, “What are zines?”

In my context I usually tell them it’s a photo series printed out and assembled into a mini magazine or a magazine version of a photobook. It’s a way to showcase your art in a physical way rather than an online way or a capitalized way by having your art in a real sponsored magazine.

What do you enjoy most about making zines?

That my photos are out in the open world and physical and that hopefully people will pay attention and read deeper into them rather than on online when people just scroll to the next photo instantly. That’s what I do with zines, I pay attention to every detail and respect what it has to offer so I hope people can do that for me, that’s what would make me enjoy the zine.

What’s the most challenging thing about zine making?

Money.

Roughly how many zines do you archive in your personal collection?

I have probably like 45 zines of zines I have made and by trading zines with people across the world for my zines and then buying zines I really want to own. If I had a lot more money I would definitely have a lot more zines, I love em’.

Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

Peter Sutherland, because he makes the best zines I’ve ever seen. If you ever get a chance to go to Family bookstore on Fairfax in LA make sure to check out Peter Sutherland’s zines.

So much of the written word we now experience via digital media. Why are zines important?

To keep pushing physical art in the real world, rather than everything just going digital. It’s going to a point, personally, that I feel lack of depth for art or photo series that goes straight to the internet. Zines keep the underground alive in a way.

Her smile is as sweet as the food she creates. If you’ve ever tasted Mello Sanchez’s pastries, you know she adds true love to every recipe as a vital ingredient. You know her voice– she is a DJ for the KUNM 89.9 radio show, Afternoon Freeform. You know her edible art, if you’ve shamelessly devoured her desserts at the Artichoke Cafe in the last year. Mello treats baking with the eyes of a visual artist, and the heart of a poet. She also knows how to get down and dirty.

If you’re on the fence about attending the ABQZF Dirty Zine Reading consider this: Mello is baking deliciously dirty, VEGAN cookies just for the occasion, and we thought we’d talk to her about it!

What kinds of cookies are you making for the Dirty Zine Reading?

Dirty, flirty cookies! I made some kinda silly, dirty cookies for Valentine’s Day, last year. They looked so pretty! I made’em like hearts, and added lettering, in icing.

YES. Yes, yes, yes! How hard is that? To WRITE on a cookie?

Decorating the cookies is not too hard. You do need a steady hand for the writing. That is the most difficult part. I have a lot of practice with it. When I first started making these cookies, getting the right consistency of the icing was tricky. What works for me is a somewhat loose icing that sets moderately quickly.

Did you say icing? Um, you had us at icing. . .

Yeah, I think people will dig these cookies! Hmm. . . at the last dirty zine reading, I won one of Anita Margarita’s Cockies– the penis cookie! They were the best. I was sitting there, eating dick all night! Ha!

Oh Mello– only you could get away with saying that and still be adorable. ADORKable, rather.

Thanks, Mello!

PS– Anita Margarita is making special cockies to be raffled off tomorrow, along with other wonderful and useful prizes! Be there!

Those first explosions of love can happen just about anywhere– you meet and then BOOM! Maybe at the grocery store, while walking the dog, perhaps while impatiently waiting in line at the bank (rare). Even at a dirty zine reading! THAT’S RIGHT– can you believe it?! Now, we can’t claim to be TOTALLY responsible for getting this adorable couple together, but we DID have something to do with Avery and Danika making a love connection on at our Dirty Zine Reading on Valentine’s Day, 2011!

Here’s their story . . .

From Avery:

“Ah, the love story… is so sweet, actually Danika wrote an amazing short story version of it . . .

We had shared an ongoing crush, and a slowly growing flirtation for about three years, after meeting at BUST! Wise Fool’s annual Women’s Circus Intensive Workshop. The Dirty Zine Reading was our first real date. We talked about wanting to cuddle, connect, share some mellow intimacy, in the preceding weeks. That night we met there to see where we were at with it all.

Sparks flew silently as we sat next to each other in the audience. During the break we chatted in the alley, aligned. . . neither of us thought it would be the beginning of something so sweet, substantial, profound. Later that night, our first kiss. So, I think of that day as our anniversary of sorts, of the relationship. Such lovely memories. . .

Danika recounts a more hilarious version . . .

Racing in late, and then I wasn’t there. Sweating, packed in, sitting next to each other during the most awkward first date moment: a sub dom story and porn playing, sexual energy turned inside out . . . talking during the break about how we’d be friends after we break up, before anything even happened! How we were gonna play it real cool, not get all intense. I was so distracted by her hotness . . .”

There you have it! You never know who you might meet, and what might happen at one of our dirty readings! It’s all so terribly wholesome– don’t you think?